"Kress, Texas isn't known for ice or aspiring Olympic athletes, but I was confident that I could convince my family that I was serious about this," said Ortiz. "So, one day I went out to search for people interested in sponsoring me for my first speed skating training camp, which would be held in Salt Lake City at the Utah Olympic Oval."

In a mere two weeks, Ortiz was able to raise over $1,000 from local sponsors and in the summer of 2006, Ortiz was able to attend his first speed skating camp.

In February of 2007, Ortiz returned to Salt Lake City for a second training camp which is where he met another skater by the name of Tony Sargent.

"Tony invited me to train with him that summer in Milwaukee with his coach Bob Fenn. I accepted the invite and I'm off to Milwaukee for two months," said Ortiz. "I returned home in August where I discussed the next step I wanted to take with my skating with my family."

Ortiz and his parents decided that the best course of action was for Alex to graduate high school early and move to Milwaukee.

In March of 2008, Ortiz moved to Milwaukee where he began to train full-time as a long-track speed skater at the Pettit National Ice Center.

To help keep those important to him up to speed on all the happenings of his life, Ortiz created the AO Show on Facebook.

Ortiz originally intended for the show to be for his parents in Kress and his sister in Colorado, but others, including Olympic medalist and National and International Skaters have tuned into Ortiz's "show."

"I remember I was sitting down at the rink, putting on my skates and I noticed someone sat next to me. It was Olympic bronze medalist, Kip Carpenter. He introduced himself to me, and said he really enjoyed my show," said Ortiz.

Ortiz has had some great accomplishments this year, including getting to compete as an official United States speed skater, but he also had to weather a tragedy that struck as Ortiz was headed to his first-ever international competition.

As my team and I were traveling to Calgary, I received some devastating news. It was 4 a.m. when I received a phone call from my mother that my cousin had passed away in a car accident," said Ortiz.

Ortiz's mother told him he could continue with his trip or come home and without hesitation Ortiz got on the first flight back to Texas.

"Seeing how devastated my family was, I was seriously considering taking off from skating and staying home. But I was encourage to go back and do what I was set out to do, because my cousin was so fascinated with me and my skating. So, I decided to go back to Milwaukee, and thought about my cousin and how much he believed in me, so that helped my train even harder," Ortiz said.

All of Ortiz's work has begun to pay off.

In seven months of competitive skating, Ortiz is 3.3 sections away from qualifying for the 2010 Olympic Trials which will be held in October in Milwaukee and again in December in Salt Lake City. To qualify for the Olympic Trials, Ortiz must skate a time of 39 seconds.

"I have a lot of weight on my shoulders, but I believe in myself 100 percent, and I have faith that if I train hard enough this summer, I will be ready. It's in the grasp of my hand. Every millisecond counts. You just have to work your tail off to get to that level," Ortiz said. "I want kids and adults to see that if you put your mind to something, anything is possible. I want to be a good example for the kids back at home. I want to show them if you want to do something in life, go for it."

A basic overview of Ortiz's day during skating season goes like this: Get up at 6 a.m. and go to culinary school; At noon, take care of the day's business, errands and the like; At 3:30 p.m., sharpen skates and then head to the rink by 4:30 p.m. where Ortiz warms-up, stretches and cycles; And, at 5 p.m. Ortiz finally hits the rink where he skates until 7:30 p.m.

Currently Ortiz is in off-season which will last until July. In the off-season, Ortiz trains for around 4-6 hours.

When Oritz isn't skating he attends culinary school at Milwaukee Tech.

"My mom was a cook and caterer and she gave it up to get a better paying job to help support me," said Ortiz. "I enrolled in culinary school to honor her and show her that her sacrifice didn't go unnoticed."

Ortiz said that his mom always has wanted to own her own restaurant, and that one day he might like to help her open one day.

To pay the bills, Ortiz works for the Milwaukee Brewers' entertainment and promotions department. One of the things Ortiz does to entertain is compete as one of the sausages in the famous Sausage Races. Recently, one of the sausages fell on its face during the race and ended up on SportsCenter. Ortiz said it wasn't him.

Ortiz also goes around the stadium and takes people pictures and makes sure that the faces have a good time.

The only problem with a job as awesome as working for the Brewers is that when they aren't playing, Ortiz doesn't have a job.

Fortunately, Ortiz has been able to cash in on being athletic and fit as he has begun to do some part-time modeling.

The modeling works out well because it is completely up to the model to choose if he would like to do a shoot or not. So, if Ortiz gets offered a shoot, he can merely decline it if it interferes with his skating schedule.

However, being a full-time athlete and going to school, makes paying the bills difficult at times which has Ortiz searching for sponsorships.

"Before I begin to search here in Wisconsin, I would like to give the opportunity first for businesses from West Texas," said Ortiz. "I would be privileged to be represented by local people. If I get sponsored from a business, they would have excellent publicity such as a place for their company logo on my new skin suit, their logo put on my official Web site, and their logo on my 'sk8 AO' warm-up uniform."

But Ortiz isn't complaining.

He is more than content working his hardest in an effort to make his Olympic dreams into reality.